The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric TimesWilson, Thomas
Religion
The Swastika, the Earliest Known Symbol, and Its Migration: With Observations on the Migration of Certain Industries in Prehistoric Times
Wilson, Thomas
Industries, Primitive; Swastikas; Symbolism
There is no proposition in archæology which can be so easily
demonstrated as the assertion that the Swastika was originally a
fragment of the Egyptian meander, provided Greek geometric vases are
called in evidence. The connection between the meander and the
Swastika has been long since suggested by Prof. A. S. Murray.[71]
Hindu specialists have suggested that the Swastika produced the
meander. Birdwood[72] says: "I believe the Swastika to be the origin
of the key pattern ornament of Greek and Chinese decorative art."
Zmigrodzki, in a recent publication,[73] has not only reproposed this
derivation of the meander, but has even connected the Mycenæ spirals
with this supposed development, and has proposed to change the name of
the spiral ornament accordingly. * * * The equivalence of the Swastika
with the meander pattern is suggested, in the first instance, by its
appearance in the shape of the meander on the Rhodian (pl. 28, fig.
7), Melian (pl. 60, fig. 8), archæic Greek (pl. 60, fig. 9, and pl.
61, fig. 12), and Greek geometric vases (pl. 56). The appearance, in
shape of the meander may be verified in the British Museum on one
geometric vase of the oldest type, and it also occurs in the Louvre.
On page 354, Goodyear says:
The solar significance of the Swastika is proven by the Hindu coins of
the Jains. Its generative significance is proven by a leaden statuette
from Troy. It is an equivalent of the lotus (pl. 47, figs. 1, 2, 3),
of the solar diagram (pl. 57, fig. 12, and pl. 60, fig. 8), of the
rosette (pl. 20, fig. 8), of concentric rings (pl. 47, fig. 11), of
the spiral scroll (pl. 34, fig. 8, and pl. 39, fig. 2), of the
geometric boss (pl. 48, fig. 12), of the triangle (pl. 46, fig. 5),
and of the anthemion (pl. 28, fig. 7, and pl. 30, fig. 4). It appears
with the solar deer (pl. 60, figs. 1 and 2), with the solar antelope
(pl. 37, fig. 9), with the symbolic fish (pl. 42, fig. 1), with the
ibex (pl. 37, fig. 4), with the solar sphinx (pl. 34, fig. 8), with
the solar lion (pl. 30, fig. 4), the solar ram (pl. 28, fig. 7), and
the solar horse (pl. 61, figs. 1, 4, 5, and 12). Its most emphatic and
constant association is with the solar bird (pl. 60, fig. 15; fig.
173).
[Illustration: Fig. 26. DETAIL OF GREEK VASE. Meander and Swastika.
Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," fig. 171.]
[Illustration: Fig. 27. DETAIL OF GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM. Swastika, right, with solar geese. Goodyear, "Grammar of the
Lotus," pl. 353, fig. 173.]
[Illustration: Fig. 28. GREEK GEOMETRIC VASE. Swastika with solar geese.
Goodyear, "Grammar of the Lotus," pl. 353, fig. 172.]
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